In the first week of March 1943 a force of land-based Australian and American warplanes won one of the most devastating victories of World War II. Described by General Douglas MacArthur as 'the decisive aerial engagement of the war in the Southwest Pacific', the brilliantly planned and conducted Battle of the Bismarck Sea smashed Japanese hopes of regaining the initiative in New Guinea and eliminated any possibility that Australia might be invaded.
The war in the Pacific had started with a stunning series of disasters for the allies: the attack on Pearl Harbor; the fall in rapid succession of Malaya, Rabaul, Singapore, and the Netherlands East Indies; and on 19 February 1942 the low point in Australian military history, the bombing of Darwin. But following those defeats the allies began to claw their way back. The triumph of American naval air power at Coral Sea and Midway in mid-1942 halted the Japanese advance towards New Guinea and Australia; and shortly afterwards the Australian victories (with American assistance) at Milne Bay and Kokoda weakened the enemy's hold on New Guinea. Further successes at Buna, Gona and Sanananda between November 1942 and January 1943 left the Japanese forces in New Guinea in urgent need of reinforcement.
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